m another dressing down if he
came sneaking about here."

"And so I will," cried Tom. "He has never forgiven me, though, for the
last. I know he hates me. So does Eely hate you."

"Let 'em," I said, as we went on.

"But they'll serve us out some day if they can."

"Dinner--dinner!" I cried. "Come on!" and we set off at a trot, for
the prospect of hot roast mutton and potatoes just then was of far more
consequence to me than my school-fellow's prophecies of evil.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

I thought of my little plan that night when I went to bed, and I had it
in my mind when I woke next morning, and laughed over it merrily as I
dressed.

It was the merest trifle, but it amused me; and I have often thought
since of what big things grow sometimes out of the merest trifles.
School-days are often so monotonous that boys jump at little things for
their entertainment, and as there was some good-humoured mischief in
this which would do no one any harm, only create a laugh, in which Tom
Mercer would no doubt join after he had got over the first feeling of
vexation, I had no hesitation about putting it in force.

I had to wait for my opportunity, and it came that afternoon, when most
of the boys were together cricketing and playing rounders. I glanced
round the field, and then slipped away unobserved, made my way round by
the back, and crossed the open space toward the yard.

It was absolutely necessary for me to meet no one, so as to avoid
suspicion when Mercer found out what had been done, and I intended, as
soon as I had executed my little plan, to slip back by the same way into
the play-field, so as to be able to prove where I was on that afternoon.

But, as a matter of course, just because I did not wish to meet any one,
I must meet the cook just returning from the kitchen garden with a
bundle of thyme in her hand.

Everybody spoke of Cook as being disagreeable and ready to snap and
snarl if she were asked for anything extra because a boy was sick; but
they say, "Speak well of the bridge that carries you well over," and I
always found her the most kindly of women; and she nodded and smiled.

"What boys you and Master Mercer are!" she said. "Why, you are always
going and moping up in that loft instead of being in the fields at
play."

She went on toward the house, and I stood hesitating about carrying out
my plan.

"She knows I've come," I said, "and if there is a row, and questions
asked, she may sa